Knowledge Share Description
Gather with a cup of medicinal mushroom tea and listen to stories of Indigenous fungi uses across Turtle Island. In this knowledge share we will connect with the deeper medicine that fungi offer while honoring the knowledge and experience that Native people have with various fungi. Stories and tid bits will be shared from Indigenous people like the Anashinabeg, Haudenosaunee, Miwok, Yokuts, Mazatec, and around the world like the Khanty people of Siberia and even people of India and Africa. We will remember how to cultivate a reciprocal relationship with our fungal kin in order to live in greater alignment with the networks of care that fungi build. We will talk about the sustainability of Chaga and learn how to incorporate this fungi more intentionally into our lives. There are many different medicinal mushrooms on the market, as the mushroom industry is enjoying the recent boom in mushroom popularity, and people are flocking to the woods in search of medicinal mushrooms while new mushroom supplement companies are also popping up everywhere. What is it about mushrooms that we desire? Their medicine? Their wisdom? Are we being extractive or reciprocal? We will ask some reflective questions to address our needs and wants from fungi, then turn our perspective from the view of fungi and see what their role is in nature, in turn, gaining a deeper appreciation for the fungal diversity in the ecosystem you live in.
Fungi use in birthwork is another area we will look into and as we, again, reclaim autonomy of our bodies and ask what fungi can do to support birth work and abortion work. In this knowledge share we will weave through many Indigenous concepts using an intersectional approach to fungi and relationship building or "healing" as Mario points out.
Fungi we will be engaging with
Chaga Inonotus obliquus
Iqmik Phelenius ignarius
Lichen
Reiishi Ganoderma Lucidium
Huitlacoche
Vulture Tail Stereum hirsutum
Knowledge Share Includes
An introduction of terms/ words to Indigenous Fungi uses. Using the English language to describe the Indigenous view of nature can be limiting so we will engage in an exercise to help us ground our view of the fungal world.
Take a look at the sustainability of Chaga and learn how to invite the medicinal properties of this powerful fungi into our lives more intentionally.
How Indigenous protocols of reciprocity and respect are ways of preserving “good medicine” and ensuring healthy relationships.
We will go over some novel ways to use and connect with fungal diversity local to where you live. Lichen is all around us and so are different species of Ganoderma (Reiishi)
Fungi in birthwork. In this storytelling part of the knowledge share we will discuss and share anecdotal evidence of fungi use in birthwork and learn if we may be able to re-introduce this ancestral knowledge back into our birthing and abortion practices.
Exchange
$35
$70 reparations (If you have financial abundance, this is our pay-it-forward option to fund our scholarships and work redistributing resources to Black and Indigenous Land Projects)
For scholarships please email herbancura@gmail.com with subject Fungi
Access
*ASR Captioning provided
*Spanish interpretation available (Si requiere interpretacion por favor mande un email a herbancura@gmail.com)
Facilitator
Mario Ceballos (he/him/they) is of Yoeme ancestry who lives on occupied Kumeyaay land. Mario is the co-founder of POC Fungi Community (POCFC). The POCFC is an intersectional space for BIPOC people to safely speak and learn about science, environmental and social justice, spirituality, food sovereignty, and access to medicinal and edible fungi, and so much more. Mario will facilitate a space where we can share stories about our fungal kin and how we can incorporate their lessons into our collective healing and liberation. Mario has been involved in social justice movements since their preteens and uses those experiences to organize around mycology and more specifically ethnomycology, the study of humans in relation to the fungal Queendom. Mario is a stay at home parent of three children and when they are not on a nature walk with their children or organizing community events, they enjoy reading books and cooking for friends and family.